Let's indeed hope it would be so. If you really think about it, you will see that the market makers will widen the bid/ask to cover their tax expenses, and everybody else will not only pay for the widened bid/ask and hence market makers' tax, but also their own tax as well. So, this is really a double tax for everybody else. This is doubling the speed on the high way to hell.
Are you sure about that? I have read though the draft bill several times, and I am not seeing any exemption for Goldman.
I think it unlikely. If GS is opposed to this, it's hard to imagine it happening. GS could respond in two ways: 1) get an exemption for themselves, or 2) defeat the measure. I would think the second would be easier to achieve and would better serve their interests. GS doesn't see individual traders as a threat so much as a source of revenue. So far, I know absolutely nothing about what they will do, if anything. I believe all the big players prefer the market just the way it is, rather than the chaos this proposed tax would undoubtedly create. And I believe the big players will lead and finance the fight when the time comes. All the "calls to arms" I am seeing on ET are doing more harm than good. ETers are impossible to organize, and all together we're mouse nuts to the big players and the government. Keeping up a steady drumbeat about this bill just keeps public attention on it, and the public is already royally pissed off.